Palestinian Christians face extinction in West Bank by 2050, says cleric

Reverend Mitri Raheb, founder and president of Dar al-Kalima University in Bethlehem, delivered a stark warning: Palestinian Christians, who call themselves 'living stones' and have inhabited the Holy Land for 2,000 years, may not survive another generation. 'If the current conditions continue, there will not be a single Palestinian Christian left by 2050,' he said. His comments come as hundreds have already emigrated in the nearly three years since the Gaza war began, driven by deteriorating security, economic uncertainty, and a daily reality of settler attacks in the West Bank.

The situation is accelerating a historic exodus. Issa Qassis, a 31-year-old entrepreneur in Ramallah, is seriously considering leaving his family and startup to move to the United States. He began thinking about it a year ago, citing feelings of 'frustrated and hopeless.' Clergy members point to a compound crisis: Israeli settler violence has become an almost daily occurrence, Israeli military operations and checkpoints have multiplied, and the humanitarian and economic situation is worsening. For a community already small and dwindling, the combination of physical insecurity and lack of opportunity is proving lethal to its future. Raheb's 2050 prediction is not a forecast of violence, but of demographic collapse through attrition.